“Containing all of Tolkien's original, non-Middle-earth stories, the contents of Tales from the Perilous Realm have one vague theme in common: they all take place in, on the outskirts of, or in places closely resembling Faëry, the "Perilous Realm" itself, what Chesterton called "the sunny country of common sense", a land of magic, beauty, and meaning but also of danger, the forbidden, and arbitrary taboos. Roverandom is a delightful children's story written on the occasion of Tolkien's son's toy dog going missing; Farmer Giles of Ham is quite similar in tone and style to The Hobbit, and tells a story of how a plain and simple farmer, through luck and courage and the help of his sensible mare, defeats a dragon and becomes a king; The Adventures of Tom Bombadil contains two interesting and well-crafted poems about its title character as well as several other fantastic verses; the awe-inspiring and heartbreaking Smith of Wootton Major, perhaps my favorite of the stories, describes a man's occasional journeys into Faëry and the decision he must make to pass on that privilege to another; Leaf by Niggle is an allegory of sorts on the interaction of art and the good life, a study on the concept of platonic ideals, and a whetting of the appetite for the wonders, delights and perils of the afterlife. Completing the volume is Tolkien's celebrated essay "On Fairy-stories", in which the writer and professor set down his observations and experiences with the fairy-tale as a body of folklore and as a literary genre, dispelling many of the myths that surround it (that it is only, or mainly, for children, that it is not serious, that it is mere escapism, etc.). ”
Michael wrote this review Friday, January 30 2009.
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